Responding to my praise for golf, Steven Gallaher (of I don’t know where, but his email has “us” at the end of it, so I’m guessing somewhere in the USA) says this:
On the other hand, my observation of the golfers I get paired with on those occasions when I go to the course alone is that most do not care to suffer the consequences of their actions, and so they don’t. Lies are improved and mulligans are taken. Short puts are never attempted; they are assumed to be made. Per-hole score is capped in one way or another (often twice par).
Which presumably means that you don’t score yourself as having taken any more than eight shots on a par four hole, even if you actually took eighteen. I don’t know what a mulligan is, but it sounds equally sneaky. This all reminds me of the stories about Bill Clinton’s dubious self-scoring habits as a golfer.
Perhaps our approach to golf is a reflection of our approach to life. If so, what does that say about our culture?
As usual, Steven, the news about our culture is not good. We’re all doomed, doomed. According to reliable eyewitness accounts, Western Civilisation has been in headlong and uninterrupted decline at least since the time of the ancient Sumerians, i.e. ever since anyone has ever kept reliable eyewitness accounts of anything. Either that, or you play all your golf in Arkansas.
